Apache Spark, developed at UC Berkeley and open sourced in 2010, serves as a leading framework in the big data landscape, offering advantages like in-memory computing and support for advanced analytics on Hadoop clusters. Its core features include ease of development with native APIs, a generalized execution model, and capabilities for SQL, streaming, machine learning, and graph processing in a unified environment. The document discusses Spark's growth, historical context, and technical distinctions from other big data processing systems like MapReduce.